the 17th, and after a desperate conflict, he was driven across the main
stream with the loss of 500 men, and with difficulty secured himself
from pursuit by breaking the bridge. The suburb of Leopold, in itself a
second city, was given up to the flames; and the Turks, erecting two
batteries on the bank opposite Vienna, completed the investment on the
only side which had hitherto remained open. Kara-Mustapha, in the
confidence of anticipated triumph, now summoned Stahrenberg to
surrender, by throwing a cartel into the city, wrapped up in linen and
fastened to an arrow: and no answer being returned, the fire of the
batteries on the Leopold island opened on the town; and in less than a
week ten others were completed and mounted with cannon on the landward
side.

The main point of attack, in the former siege under Soliman, had been
the gate of Carinthia, (Kaernther-Thor,) and the adjoining bastions; but
the weight of the Turkish fire on the land side was now directed
principally against the Castle-Gate, (Burg-Thor,) lying to the left of
the former, and against the curtain between the Castle bastion and that
of Loebel; and on the river side from the batteries of the Leopold island
against the Rothenthurm or Red Tower, at the point where the
fortifications abut on the stream of the Danube. The tent of the vizir
was pitched opposite the Burg-Thor, in the midst of the janissaries and
Roumeliote troops, while the feudatories of Anatolia and Syria, under
their pashas, were posted right and left of this central point, and the
encampments of the various divisions stretched far round the city in a
semi-circle many miles in extent, touching the Danube at its two extreme
points of Ebersdorff below Vienna, and Nussdorff in the higher part of
the stream, where a bridge thrown over the narrow channel formed a
communication between the outposts on the mainland, and those on the
Leopold island. The charge of this bridge was assigned to the Moldavian
and Wallachian contingents, under the command of Scherban, waiwode of
the latter province, and one of the most remarkable adventurers of the
age. Born of a noble Wallachian family, which claimed descent from the
ancient imperial house of Cantacuzene, he had earned from the Turks, not
less by the reckless bravery he had displayed under the standard of the
crescent in the wars of Poland, than by the consummate address with
which he had steered his way through the tortuous intrigues of the
Fanar,